Trailokyanath Sanyal Profile

Trailokyanath Sanyal Biography

Trailokyanath Sanyal was a Brahmo missionary and musician from Bengal who lived in the 19th century. He was born in the year 1848 and passed away in the year 1915. He has been one among those missionaries who personally assisted in combining the ideals of traditional Vaishnavism with those of Brahmo Samaj. He has composed hundreds of devotional musical compositions based on folk music as well as Indian classical music, which he grouped under Brahma Sangit, devotional songs of Brahmo Samaj. Rabindranath Tagore later renovated this musical art form and popularized in Bengal. Now also his songs are used as prayers of the Brahmo Samaj.

He joined Brahmo Samaj under the influence of Vijay Krishna Goswami and Aghore Nath Gupta in 1867 just one year after its formation. Keshub Chunder Sen introduced the Vaishnava mode of propagation, namely a singing procession through the streets at dawn break, called nagar sankirtan. People used to flow to streets to watch this musical band in the early mornings. In 1869, Keshub Chunder Sen selected 4 persons from his missionaries to research on 4 distinct religions of the world – Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity, one more person was also selected into the group. He was none other than Trailokyanath Sanyal who was asked to study on music. He was also given the new name, Chiranjib Sharma. He was ordained as an adhyapak of music and was known as the singing apostle of the New Dispensation.

Sanyal used to live in “Mangabari” in Kolkata. His songs and kirtans inspired great people like Keshub Chunder Sen and he was known as a soft hearted person. Apart from music compositions, he has also written a few books including plays. Keshub Chunder Sen took part in one of his plays Navabrindavan. Vidhan Bharat, Navabrindavan, Keshubcharit, Brahmo Samajer Itibritta, Bhakti Chaitanya Chandrika, Ishacharitamrita, Garale Amrita, Sri Chaitanyer Jibon O Dharma, Pather Sambal, Sadhu Aghorenath, Vinshsatabdi, Brahmageeta, Geetaratnabalee and Nava Sikshya were his books.